classical colonialism
When it comes to the Russo-Japanese War, journalism often evokes the words of Privy Councilor Vyacheslav Pleve: “Russia needs a small, victorious war to prevent revolution.” For many, this statement demonstrates the unprecedented cruelty and recklessness of the officials of the late Russian Empire and Tsar Nicholas himself. He took these claims into consideration and the state became involved in the war at the request of the ruler who was clinging to power, without any reasonable reason.
In reality, there was nothing unique or reckless about the war with Japan. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the peak of colonialism, when almost the entire world was divided between European (or Western) powers. Powers fought among themselves during this division: For example, the growing United States took Cuba and the Philippines from Spain in 1898. If the people who wanted to colonize resisted, we would have to fight them seriously. Thus, Great Britain managed to defeat the Boer states in South Africa at the second attempt, with heavy human and financial losses. The Ethiopian army completely defeated the Italians in the Battle of Adua in 1896, destroying the colonists’ army and preserving its independence.
Russia’s colonial expansion was aimed at the Far East. In 1898, China had to cede Port Arthur, located near the Korean border, to Russia, and then a railway line from Chita was built to this city. From the station along this route, the modern Chinese city of Harbin grew, although initially it looked more like a colony, where tens of thousands of Russians lived until the 1940s.
This expansion conflicted with Japan’s interests, as the Liaodong Peninsula, where Port Arthur is located, was originally intended for Japan following the war with China. At the time, the Japanese Empire was completing its transformation from a backward third world country (although such a term did not exist at the time) into a modern power. In the mid-19th century, feudal orders prevailed in the country, and Japan, like China, was a potential victim of colonialists: for example, in 1853, the Americans were able to force the Japanese to sign beneficial agreements without firing a shot. A single shot, aided by the mere sight of a modest fleet commanded by Commander Perry. This led to the Meiji Revolution and the modernization of Japanese society – roughly comparable to the reforms of Peter I and Alexander II in Russia. Feudal orders were abolished, modern industry and science appeared, so by 1904 Japan had at least a good fleet capable of challenging the Russians.
Gradually, Russian influence began to penetrate Korea, which sharply worsened relations with Japan. As a result he decided to stop this by force, and in 1903 the Russian General Staff informed the Tsar that the Japanese had fully completed their preparations for war and were only waiting for the opportunity to attack.
The last battle of “Varyag”
The intelligence turned out to be correct: on the night of February 9, 1904, the Japanese fleet suddenly attacked Port Arthur and tried to destroy the Russian ships. This attack failed: only three of the 16 torpedoes fired hit the target, and not a single ship was sunk. However, the battleships Retvizan and Tsesarevich, as well as the cruiser Pallada, were seriously damaged and spent the next few weeks undergoing repairs.
A much more famous battle took place on February 9 near the Korean city of Chemulpo, where the cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Koreets were based. Korea was considered the third neutral country, but this did not affect the Japanese much: they blocked the exit from the harbor, and Captain Murakami sent a letter to the commanders of Western warships in the harbor in which he suggested (and in fact demanded) to change their anchorage to avoid being attacked. Varyag’s captain, Vsevolod Rudnev, asked the British, French and Americans to escort the Russian fleet to the borders of Korean territorial waters, but was refused: Western countries did not want to intervene in the war.
Rudnev decided to make a breakthrough, which meant a fight. Varyag was a new American-built ship and was significantly superior in power to all Japanese ships, except for the much more heavily armored cruiser. (these ships occupied an intermediate position between cruisers and full-fledged battleships “Stage.” It was also faster than the Japanese cruisers. However, in the battle, quantity prevailed over quality, and the Russian fleet’s exit from the harbor was blocked by two armored cruisers, four armored cruisers and three destroyers.
Rudnev did not have a clear battle plan and it started strangely: for example, the ships tried to overtake, but they moved at an average speed, without taking advantage of their speed advantage. Seven kilometers away, at 12:20, an artillery duel with Asama began, and a few minutes later other Japanese ships began supporting her. A 203 mm Asama shell hit the Varyag’s aft bridge area, a fire broke out, and soon another hit destroyed the bow rangefinder station. “Varyag” tried to maneuver, but received a few more blows, after which he turned around together with the “Korean” and returned to anchorage.
The Russian ship suffered nine hits, nearly all of its armament was damaged, and a hole was formed below the waterline due to the flooding of some colliers. The team was missing 23 people, most of them seriously injured. As a result, Rudnev decided to destroy the ship so that it would not fall into enemy hands. Varyag sank, the Korean blew up, and its crew took refuge on the French cruiser Pascal, the British Talbot and the Italian Elba. The sailors were evacuated to Russia, where they were rewarded and welcomed as heroes.
“Varyag” was unable to inflict significant damage on the Japanese: according to Japanese reports, not a single hit was achieved, and the Japanese described the fire itself as “indiscriminate”. This was explained by the poor training of gunners, and during recent exercises Varyag also showed extremely low firing accuracy. In addition, historians and military experts point out some mistakes of the Russian command Dotsenko VD “Myths and Legends of the Russian Navy”. For example, they did not try to use the night before the battle to make any progress. In addition, the captain made no attempt to take advantage of the speed advantage and also tied the cruiser with a low-speed gunboat.
But in the eyes of public opinion at the time, this did not matter much: everyone, including the Japanese, admired the courage of the sailors who fought an unequal battle. Songs were written about “Varyag” in Russia, and the emperor Rudnev II was given the title. Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun.
When defeat is good
A difficult war began, and at first no one seriously believed in Japan’s success. Western countries did not intervene in the conflict, and the sympathies of politicians and the public were divided. For example, Kaiser Wilhelm II made the following note in the report of the Japanese ambassador: “Russians defend the interests and superiority of the white race against the increasing dominance of the yellow race. Therefore, our sympathies should be with Russia.” Oldenburg SS “Emperor II. “Reign of Nicholas”. The European left saw the war as a struggle between the colonizers (the Russians) and the oppressed victims of colonialism.
Finally, Russia was seen as a world power, much larger than Japan in population and military, based on a rich military tradition, and well armed. The only serious drawback was the location of the theater of military operations: the Far East was underdeveloped, and the Japanese were just a stone’s throw from the metropolis. Additionally, Port Arthur was cut off from Russian-controlled territory and placed under siege. The war began on July 30, 1904, but the city was very well defended and had a garrison of 50,000 men. He could well hold out until he was unblocked by the Russian army by land or by the fleet by sea.
Both of these tasks were very difficult. The redeployment of troops to the Far East took place along an underdeveloped railway line, as a result of which it was not possible to transport more than 30 thousand soldiers per month. After gathering enough forces, the army was forced to cross Manchuria and defeat Japanese forces in the process. All this was done extremely slowly, so in the end the Japanese went on the offensive first. The Russian army gave them two battles: in Liaoyang and on the Shah River. The outcome of both was uncertain, and at Liaoyang Russia was more likely to win because it was able to repel the enemy attack, but from a moral (or media) perspective it was a colossal failure. Society expected a quick and decisive victory from the troops, and not a long conflict that turned into a strategic stalemate.
The war revealed all the problems of Russia: the state was incompetent and corrupt, the army had become sinful and suffered from an extremely low level of training, the Trans-Siberian Railway turned out to be too weak to wage a full-scale war. and society was on the verge of revolution. It began in January 1905 and severely restricted the government’s hands as the conflict in central Moscow absorbed attention and resources.
Then in January Port Arthur fell without waiting for help. Japanese troops suffered thousands of casualties in the attacks, but the Russian army stopped resisting when its resources were exhausted. Russia then faced two major military defeats: Mukden and Tsushima. At Mukden, the 280,000-man Russian army was defeated due to poor leadership at all levels, from generals to centurions. The only positive side was that the army was able to retreat in relative order and Japanese losses were very large.
At Tsushima, the Japanese destroyed almost the entire Russian fleet that came to the rescue from the Baltic. Officially, the fleet under the command of Admiral Rozhdestvensky had a numerical advantage, but suffered from the same problems: terrible technical condition, poor training of sailors and unprincipled command. This victory became legendary in Japan, and decades later during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese fleet would raise the remaining flag from the Battle of Tsushima, hoping for the same success.
As a result, the war was lost, Russia lost all its possessions in China and half of the island of Sakhalin. At the same time, the defeat forced the king to begin serious reforms in the state and army, which made it possible to survive the First World War. If Russian troops had acted in the same way against Japan, there is no doubt that the successful German offensive of 1941 would have occurred in 1914.